SPIKENARD. 
161 
incision being made, and require no other preparation than the separation of the 
leaves from the part to be placed beneath the soil. In tropical countries ail the fine 
kinds are said to be increased by grafting, but with us grafted ones are short-lived, 
and are long before they flower ; indeed, all the kinds which have fruited in our 
stoves are seedlings, the engrafted ones sometimes die suddenly without any 
apparent cause. 
SPIKENARD. 
Spikenard, or Nard, is an odoriferous plant which was highly esteemed by the 
ancients, but of which they have given so vague and imperfect a description, as to 
render it exceedingly difficult to point out with certainty the particular species to 
which the name was applied. Pliny, in describing it, says : — The blossoms of the 
Nardus are produced in spikes, are very fragrant, and sell for 100 denarii per pound, 
being used in wardrobes to give an agreeable perfume to clothing ; and that, both 
from these and the aromatic leaves, a very precious ointment was prepared, which 
was usually kept in small boxes made of alabaster, or some other valuable material, 
and constituted an important article in the toilets of the great. The Syrian kind 
was considered the best, and next to that the Gallic. The former grew abundantly 
in the neighbourhood of the city of Eporrhedia, from which the inhabitants obtained 
a revenue, equal to that derived from a mine of the most precious metal. He also 
distinctly notices the Nardus of Candia, and India, but does not mention them as 
the plants from which the Spikenard ointment was made. 
Pliny's remarks on the uses made of the flowers and leaves of the Nardus, seem 
to apply mainly, if not altogether, to the Lavender (Lavandula spica) which plant 
was perhaps known to the Greeks by the name of Nardus, because their supplies 
were chiefly derived from Naarda, a city of Syria, near the Euphrates, and if so, 
we can easily account for the Romans having it under that appellation. 
The name Lavender is not very ancient, and is perhaps derived from lavo, to wash, 
—because the plant was used in baths on account of its fragrance. It is a native of 
Languedoc, some parts of Spain, Hungary, and Austria, and was much cultivated in 
Syria about the time of the Christian era. The Romans also called the plant Asarum, 
because the leaves were too small and brittle to be used in garlands and coronets. 
It is not improbable but this plant was also alluded to by Theophrastus, under 
the name of Cneoron leukon, but of this nothing certain can now be ascertained. 
However high a value might have been set upon Lavender, we can scarcely 
believe it to be the true Spikenard of the ancients ; the ease with which it could be 
increased and cultivated, especially in so fine a climate as that of Syria, must in a 
few years have rendered it so common, that the price would have been lowered in 
proportion. 
VOL. XV.— NO. CLXXV. Y 
